Ti High among the best

TICONDEROGA - Ticonderoga High School has been ranked among the nation's best for a second straight year.

U.S. News and World Report magazine ranked the top high schools in America in its Dec. 9 issue, listing Ti.

Ticonderoga is among the top 500 high schools in the country, according to the magazine. That places the local school among the top 2 percent of schools nationally.

No other area school was recognized.

John McDonald, Ticonderoga Central School superintendent, said earning the award two straight years shows his district is consistently successful.

"Obviously, we are more proud that it has been sustainable for two consecutive years," he said.

U.S. News, in collaboration with School Evaluation Services, a K-12 education and data research and analysis business that provides parents with education data on schoolmatters.com, analyzed academic and enrollment data from 18,700 public high schools to find the best across the country. The top schools were placed into gold, silver and bronze medal categories.

Ticonderoga was rated silver.

Keene Central School was also recognized as a bronze school. No schools from Clinton, Washington or Warren counties made the list.

Schools that exceeded state expectations on standardized tests were given bronze status. Those schools could then get silver status based on the number of Advanced Placements exams taken by students. Gold status was awarded to the top 100 schools in the country on the silver list.

There are 1,800 schools on the bronze list, 400 on the silver and 100 on the gold.

Ti High now offers AP and college-level courses in math, English, social studies, biology, French and Spanish.

Most of the New York schools on the U.S. News list are from wealthy, suburban areas such as Westchester County.

The list of top schools is based on data from the 2006-07 academic year.

The rankings examined almost 19,000 high schools in 42 states using factors such as college preparation, student achievement, and performance of disadvantaged students. Alabama, Alaska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah, Wyoming, and Washington, D.C, did not provide data to the magazine.